Three Blessings and a Curse

From Dave Brigham:

My parents moved from Weatogue, the neighborhood of Simsbury, Connecticut, where I grew up, to nearby Windsor several years ago. In that time, I have driven dozens of times through the intersection of routes 178 and 187 in Bloomfield, which is sandwiched between Windsor and Simsbury. It was just a few years ago, however, that I noticed a collapsing structure tucked into the woods at that busy junction.

Still, I didn't make time to explore this little corner until just recently. I found more to photograph than I was expecting, but less about this forgotten homestead than I was hoping.

As you can see, this place has been abandoned for quite some time. There doesn't appear to be a basement and the walls are flimsy. This wasn't a fancy house. Nonetheless, it was somebody's castle.

The other three corners of this intersection are holy sites: Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the First Cathedral and the Apostolic Fellowship Church of Christ Jesus. There are at least two dozen churches in Bloomfield, a town of less than 21,000. Unlike many Hartford suburbs, Bloomfield is majority African-American (57.5%, as of the 2010 census), a demographic shift that has taken place over the past 70 years.

Incorporated in 1835, Bloomfield was, like many towns in the area, a farming community, with many farmers involved in growing shade tobacco (for more about the Greater Hartford tobacco industry, see September 20, 2017, "One-Stop Barnstorming Tour," and July 19, 2016, "Tobacco Road."). The section of Bloomfield that we're discussing shows up on old maps as the Old Farm District. So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that at one time this homestead and the churches around it were farmland.

I guess there are a thousand reasons why the homeowners left this place to collapse in on itself: divorce, illness, death, financial ruin, incarceration. Take your pick. I'm fascinated by houses that just stop being loved, or even owned. Several years ago I documented the remains of a house in Weatogue that had fascinated me as a teenager (see February 7, 2013, "President Little, Part II: From Myth to Man"). Any time I see a dilapidated house that someone lives in, or a collapsing place like this that once was the center of somebody's life, I have so many questions.

I had no idea before I started walking the short distance from the road into the woods, that there was a second structure on the property.

I could see a vehicle in the garage, and guessed it was an old car, tractor of pick-up truck. But no.

So what's going to become of this place?

In October 2014, a developer filed an application for a zone change with the Town of Bloomfield to allow for five multi-use residential buildings containing 20 units. In July 2015 an amended application for 10 duplexes was filed. Two years ago the project had morphed into "proposed elderly multi-family" housing (138 units) proposed by a company called Calamar. Since that time, nothing seems to have been filed.

So long for now, old car and garage. I'll keep an eye on you.